


cat's cradle

by vanitaslaughing



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Allagan Nonsense(tm), and spoilers for both of the crossover event sides, pre Adventurer from Another World/Nocturne for Heroes, vague Deltascape spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 18:21:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18744538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanitaslaughing/pseuds/vanitaslaughing
Summary: “I swear. If this day ends with both of us tempered and sacrificed to the Lady of the Vortex, I will file a complaint in the aetherial stream.”





	cat's cradle

**Author's Note:**

> for the prompt "stuck in the middle with you"

“So, mind telling me what in the hells you did!?”

“Is this really the time to be nitpickin’?”

Given all the strange things that had been happening lately, Nero would rank this at a solid… six and a half. It was not nearly as exciting as literally everything else that had happened, but… still. This was out there.

Working with this absolute nutcase of an Eorzean certainly did not help the matter at hand. She was novice at best, had an interest in things that she shouldn’t be messing with, and a penchant for getting into trouble as soon as he took his eyes off her for a split second.

“Garlond better be glad I like him enough to babysit you,” he muttered under his breath and whacked an Ixal away. “Yes! The time for nitpicking, my dear, is now rather than never! Explain!”

How exactly they had picked up a loon for this excavation of Allagan machinery was beyond him. But Y’jhimei was unfortunately the woman for the job, and Nero her unfortunate choice of partner. He had reluctantly agreed because a) Omega lay quiet at the bottom of the Yawn and the Deltascape entrance had vanished when the Warrior of Light completed the last trial b) twist it as he tried, he was a member of the Ironworks c) the previous point meant that he had to do something or Jessie, in her own words, would rip his spine out with her bare hands and fashion it into a necklace for Alpha. Since he was rather attached to his spine, he accompanied this Miqo’te on her mission.

“Man, you’re mean.” A spell cut through an Ixali weapon. “Those weren’t supposed t’find me! ‘Sides, they’re mostly after the crystals now anyway. How should I have known someone had dumped a crate of crystals here?”

“This is Coerthas,” Nero snarled and batted another Ixal away, “and those lousy Coerthans do like dumping things and people down into ditches. For all we know in another ditch there’s an ancient Mhachi coffin or the like.” To be fair to Y’jhimei, it hadn’t occurred to him to check the contents of the crate. So, honestly, the crystals were kind of his fault.

“Ooh. That would be a great find!”

“No. No, it would _not_ be a great find.” _How_ did Garlond always dig out the overly excited idiots? Even the Warrior of Light had been one back before Operation Archon. Besides, Mhachi coffins always drew in voidsent—now that he thought about it, there supposedly were voidsent at the bottom of Witchdrop.

Either way, they had been tasked with checking this Allagan machine. Y’jhimei had run off while he had messed with it, and before he knew she had come back running, screeching, with the Ixal hot on her tail. The crystal crate had just been something he had chosen to sit on. And now the Ixal were trying to grab the thief and also get the crate of crystals because of course they were tempered and wanted to summon their deity.

“I swear. If this day ends with both of us tempered and sacrificed to the Lady of the Vortex, I _will_ file a complaint in the aetherial stream.”

Unfortunately for him, two against many was barely a fair fight. He knew he hadn’t exactly properly switched the device on yet, but it had shown responses to the proper commands. Which meant that it was active. And messing around near semi-active Allagan devices with a crate of crystals and tempered beastmen was… less than ideal. He was slowly being driven away from the machine and most definitely getting separated from his partner.

“I thought they taught battle tactics in Garlemald, Tribunus Scaeva,” she squeaked at some point when Nero dropped the hammer.

“Oh, be quiet! I am but a humble member of Garlond Ironworks who _definitely_ did not sign up for a beastman brawl this morning! Tribunus Scaeva’s been dead for three years!”

A humble member of Garlond Ironworks who was going to skin a Miqo’te at this rate. Though, he had to admit, she was doing well. Definitely a novice arcanist, but someone who would do rather well once she got some more training. He’d seen plenty of Eorzean arcanist conscripts to have amassed some knowledge about it, and she was better than some of them at the very least. Y’jhimei was just unfortunately young and _very_ loud. Loud and idiotic enough to make a bunch of tempered Ixal mad.

Yes, Garlond was going to get an earful once they returned. Of all things, sending him on a device excavation with an airheaded Miqo’te who admittedly was kind of endearing, only to be beset by tempered Ixal. And that crate of crystals, in case they lost it.

Nero was driven away further, to the point he stumbled off a small ledge behind him in the snow.

“Gack!”

Just as he slammed into the snow a flash blinded him for a second.

Nero scrambled back to his feet—only to see that every single Ixal and his partner had vanished. There were footprints in the snow where they had been just a moment ago, and he caught the blue light and the sound of a machine shutting down loudly.

Nero tol Scaeva scratched the back of his neck.

“Oh, great. Just great.”

Now _he_ was going to get an earful from Garlond for losing the Miqo’te, several tempered Ixal, a crate of crystals _and_ messing up that Allagan device somehow.


End file.
